Rome mayor attacks Foreign Office for pickpocket warning

Mayor Ignazio Marino criticises an advisory released by the British Foreign Office which warns tourists in Rome to watch their wallets at the city tourist hotspots

Mayor Ignazio Marino announced last month that barriers would be erected at the start of platforms to stop the increasing number of thieves who board trains to steal bags before they leavePhoto: Getty

Tom Kington, Rome

2:19PM BST 17 Aug 2014

The mayor of Rome has launched a scathing attack on the British Foreign Office after it alerted tourists to the danger of pickpockets in the eternal city.

Mayor Ignazio Marino accused the Foreign Office of spreading lies about Rome and smugly offending Romans, after it warned tourists to watch their wallets at the city’s central station and when catching the notorious number 64 bus to the Vatican, where pickpockets go to work as visitors admire the views.

Tourists are often "hassled and jostled to distract them," by crooks before accomplices move in to steal belongings, warned the Foreign Office.

That was enough to provoke the furious response from Mr Marino, who called the report "misleading and false."

He added: "There are proven, international statistics which show that London is much more dangerous than Rome in terms of criminality."

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Romans "welcome with joy all tourists from the UK, but they feel offended by warnings which have a whiff of non-existent superiority," he said.

Despite his outburst, criminality at Rome's Termini station has recently caused alarm.

Mr Marino himself announced last month that barriers would be erected at the start of platforms to stop the increasing number of thieves who board trains to steal bags before they leave.

Rome's police chief Giuseppe Pecoraro said the number of police patrols would be boosted to stem the invasion of pickpockets at the station. Last week, 32 pickpockets were arrested by police at tourist sites around the city, including 21 Romanians. Roma gangs are also known to train up children as pickpockets.

The Foreign Office advisory also warns visitors they might be offered spiked drinks in Italy or robbed in their sleep on night trains.

But Mr Marino said he was more concerned with the perils people face in London, adding that he fully backed the Italian government's own advisory for Italians visiting the UK which, he said, "alerts them to the dangers of numerous London neighbourhoods."

On a site linked to the Italian foreign office, tourists heading for London are told that "great attention and caution" is required on public transport since thefts and pickpocketing are on the rise.

More ominously, tourists are told to keep an eye on news bulletins issued by the press or local authorities about possible new flare-ups of public disorder in the wake of the August 2011 riots in the UK.

But journalist Paolo Conti took issue with Mr Marino on Sunday, arguing in Corriere della Sera that "in London's train stations one is not assaulted by bands of immigrants, most of whom are minors". Londoners, he added, "are rarely pickpocketed on trains or the tube."

"Romans are not offended by the UK Foreign Office which is doing its job, dear Mayor Marino, but by those crooks who make life unliveable at the station, the airport and on too many buses."